In the true sense of a Golden Era 1940s movie; released in 1941 Dumbo starts with a string of violins taking the viewer on a brief musical summery of the movie in the opening credits. Dumbo, obviously aimed to small children, and a 180 departure from its previous film Fantasia, is done with bright primary colors, and kid friendly (at the time kid friendly) character designs. Also aimed to boost national pride, Dumbo serves as a military promotional tool for the war front.
After the gorgeous effect of wind and rain, thunder and lightning, we (the audience) hear the distinct sound of a P-51 mustang war airplane (or any generic 1940s mustang motor) to quickly reveal a V formation by a group of storks. This must be the definite 180 degree departure from Fantasia; in Dumbo's world sex does not exist, at all: babies are delivered from heaven by storks. The storks sing in the style popular in the 1940s, and after a series of militar-esque formations the storks decent into a literal map of Florida, again going with popular trend of being overly literal in cartoons; no risks taken in dumbo.As the storks deliver their cargo, one by one the animals are presented, with a beautiful background the audience gets a glimpse of the cages and surroundings.And it is the background that stands alone as a free form artistic expression; those watercolor paintings is what gives Dumbo a uniqueness among other cartoon of its time. As the babies are delivered and the lone elephant fails to receive her delivery, the scene moves forward an introduces the mood setter; the locomotive is the one that gives the audience clues of what the main characters are going go thru. As the train leaves its station, and yells out "lets go!" the stork delivering dumbo is introduced; since it is the stork delivering the main character, it is the only one anthropomized. A very quick introduction of Dumbo's mother, the only shy "proper" female elephant, leads to the revelation of Dumbos unique ears. After this, the locomotive sets the mood for the next act, as the sun sets (with an array of violets, blues, and pinks) the locomotive is presented with a challenge, and she/he/it delivers the clue as to how Dumbo should take the upcoming challenge "I know I can, I know I can."
This brings the viewer with one Dumbo's use of light in dramatic scenes. Now I won't get into Dumbo's use of race, and the negative connotations that the movie's characters portray, but I will say that Dumbo is a movie about the underdog. And although it does stereotype the African American culture, at the same time it puts the culture in the forefront, as with Dumbo, equalizing the underdogs of the era. That said, it is a beautiful rendition of weather, man, and animals in the construction of the circus. Which is accentuated with a blue tint that seems to dominate the color scheme of the feature. Daybreak; and the circus parade is shown, and this is one of the few instances where we see people, which aside from the spectators, the only times that the audience sees full faces and people features is when the people are in costume, or in a performance role. In Dumbo, people are not important, and are seen just like animals might see us, passing blobs of color and light. By the en of the parade, the confrontation scene, where Dumbo's mother, defends Dumbo, and spanks the bully with the big ears. And in a break from Dumbo's propaganda of the American might, in this scene the bully is seen with the same feature of Dumbo's big ears as a form of saying that bullies are just covering up their own insecurities; the strong are not as strong as they appear.
After Dumbo is separated from his mother, and shunned by the elephants, he teams up with the little mouse, who is the voice that Dumbo lacks. And after the failed attempt of stardom, and wrecking the circus Dumbo is made a clown. And he fails by not recognizing his strength and tries to hide his ears. Ike, I mean Dumbo, then goes and sees his mom with the help of the mouse. And in this scene we get the calm before the storm. Dumbo then end up drinking tainted water and gets drunk. This next sequence was the most terrifying thing in my childhood. This was a total display of Technicolor and breaks completely with the soft, almost pastel palette of the feature an dives the viewer into a psychedelic lucid dream. More than discourage the audience from drinking, the dancing elephants manage to entertain Dumbo and the mouse, so much that they end up flying. But I'm getting ahead of myself. The use of lighting and special effects in the psychedelic elephants is impressive, with my favorite being the dancing sequence with the lightning rope thing.
After Dumbo and mouse are awaken in the top of the tree by the very stereotypical southern "crows" thing happen pretty quickly for Dumbo, and the conclusion is almost rushed. This is where Dumbo as the American war machine metaphor is brought to light deliberately; at one point the mouse shouts to Dumbo to "Retract your landing gear. Raise your fuselage." By the time when the circus clowns attempt to kill Dumbo by making jump impossibly high, dumbo gains his confidence and flies and all is well. The audience is then explained the success of Dumbo via a news reel and a song. Lessons where learned from previous features, and this one was done in an economic, but artistic way, leaning toward the economic factors. A classic now, but it was a movie made for marketing and propaganda in its time of release; Dumbo encouraged the American people to endure the difficult time that they where enduring, and did it effectively.
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